"There are lives to brighten. There are hearts to touch. There are souls to save."
-Thomas S. Monson

Saturday, 6 August 2016

Faith is all you need!

Where do I even begin? This week was awesome! It was actually even busier than the previous week! I can hardly believe how blessed we are, with so many investigators to teach, most of whom actually want to learn and progress! We found a couple more new ones this week, including a woman from Sri Lanka who has the most adorable little toddlers and an elderly woman from Jamaica. Some of the other people we teach are from Egypt, Rwanda, Philippines, St. Vincent, and Lebanon, to name a few. Did I mention that practically none of the people we teach are Canadian?

One of our investigators who IS born and raised in Canada is a 10-year-old girl named Jasmine - and she's getting baptized in 2 weeks! She is so precious. An 8-year-old girl in our ward got baptized last weekend, and Jasmine came to watch. Afterwards, I asked her, "So what did you think?" She paused to think about it, then said, "Watching people get baptized makes me want to get baptized." I love this girl so much!

Although we have a few other investigators who have accepted baptismal dates, I've come to the realization that I probably won't be around to see any of them make that covenant with God. It makes me sad because I love them a lot and I want to be there, but at the same time I guess it doesn't really matter. The important thing is that it happens. Faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, and baptism are all steps along the only path that leads to eternal joy in the presence of God, and our purpose as missionaries is to help people along that path, from wherever they are to farther up. Then at some point, we leave, and they continue on without us - with help from the next missionaries and support from ward members. Most importantly, if we've taught them well, they'll know that they have the love and guidance of God to take them where they need to go.

I'm coming to learn more and more that faith is all you really need in this life. You don't need reasons to keep the commandments, you need faith. You don't need money to pay tithing, you need faith. You don't need time to read your scriptures and go to church, you need faith. You don't need great conversational skills to share the gospel, you need faith. You don't need a perfect life to be happy, you need faith. Faith is all you need!

Sister Shaver

lilianne and her two girls at church, us
painting lilianne's house, lilianne's girls :)